Sometimes people think they have a higher risk of developing cancer because there has been cancer in their family. But only a small number of cancers (between 5 and 10% or less than 1 in 10 cases) seem to be caused by a gene that is inherited from either parent. If you have one or two relatives with cancer, this does not mean that a ‘cancer gene’ is running in your family. For more information on genetics and cancer, go to our Cancerbackup site or assess your inherited genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer with Macmillan’s online tool OPERA.